inotifywatch(1)                       General Commands Manual                       inotifywatch(1)

NAME
       inotifywatch - gather filesystem access statistics using inotify

SYNOPSIS
       inotifywatch  [-hvzrqf]  [-e  <event> ] [-t <seconds> ] [-a <event> ] [-d <event> ] <file> [
       ... ]

DESCRIPTION
       inotifywatch listens for filesystem events using Linux's inotify(7) interface, then  outputs
       a summary count of the events received on each file or directory.

OUTPUT
       inotifywatch  will output a table on standard out with one column for each type of event and
       one row for each watched file or directory.  The table will show the amount  of  times  each
       event  occurred  for  each  watched file or directory.  Output can be sorted by a particular
       event using the -a or -d options.

       Some diagnostic information will be output on standard error.

OPTIONS
       -h, --help
              Output some helpful usage information.

       -v, --verbose
              Output some extra information on standard error during execution.

       @<file>
              When watching a directory tree recursively, exclude the  specified  file  from  being
              watched.   The  file  must be specified with a relative or absolute path according to
              whether a relative or absolute path is given for watched directories.  If a  specific
              path is explicitly both included and excluded, it will always be watched.

              Note:  If  you  need  to watch a directory or file whose name starts with @, give the
              absolute path.

       --fromfile <file>
              Read filenames to watch or exclude from a file, one filename per line.  If  filenames
              begin  with  @ they are excluded as described above.  If <file> is `-', filenames are
              read from standard input.  Use this option if you need to watch  too  many  files  to
              pass in as command line arguments.

       -z, --zero
              Output  table  rows  and columns even if all elements are zero.  By default, rows and
              columns are only output if they contain non-zero elements.  Using  this  option  when
              watching for every event on a lot of files can result in a lot of output!

       --exclude <pattern>
              Do not process any events whose filename matches the specified POSIX extended regular
              expression, case sensitive.

       --excludei <pattern>
              Do not process any events whose filename matches the specified POSIX extended regular
              expression, case insensitive.

       -r, --recursive
              Watch all subdirectories of any directories passed as arguments.  Watches will be set
              up recursively to an unlimited depth.  Symbolic links  are  not  traversed.   If  new
              directories  are  created  within  watched  directories  they  will  automatically be
              watched.

              Warning: If you use this option while watching the root directory of a large tree, it
              may take quite a while until all inotify watches are established, and events will not
              be received in this time.  Also, since one inotify watch will be established per sub‐
              directory, it is possible that the maximum amount of inotify watches per user will be
              reached.   The  default  maximum  is  8192;  it  can  be  increased  by  writing   to
              /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches.

       -t <seconds>, --timeout <seconds>
              Listen only for the specified amount of seconds.  If not specified, inotifywatch will
              gather statistics until receiving an interrupt signal by (for example) pressing  CON‐
              TROL-C at the console.

       -e <event>, --event <event>
              Listen  for  specific event(s) only.  The events which can be listened for are listed
              in the EVENTS section.  This option can be specified more than once.  If omitted, all
              events are listened for.

       -a <event>, --ascending <event>
              Sort  output  ascending  by  event  counts  for the specified event.  Sortable events
              include `total' and all the events listed in the EVENTS  section  except  `move'  and
              `close'  (you  must  use  `moved_to',  `moved_from', `close_write' or `close_nowrite'
              instead).  The default is to sort descending by `total'.

       -d <event>, --descending <event>
              Sort output descending by event counts for  the  specified  event.   Sortable  events
              include  `total'  and  all  the events listed in the EVENTS section except `move' and
              `close' (you must use  `moved_to',  `moved_from',  `close_write'  or  `close_nowrite'
              instead).  The default is to sort descending by `total'.

EXIT STATUS
       0      The program executed successfully.

       1      An error occurred in execution of the program.

EVENTS
       The following events are valid for use with the -e option:

       access A watched file or a file within a watched directory was read from.

       modify A watched file or a file within a watched directory was written to.

       attrib The  metadata  of  a  watched file or a file within a watched directory was modified.
              This includes timestamps, file permissions, extended attributes etc.

       close_write
              A watched file or a file within a watched directory was closed, after being opened in
              writeable mode.  This does not necessarily imply the file was written to.

       close_nowrite
              A watched file or a file within a watched directory was closed, after being opened in
              read-only mode.

       close  A watched file or a file within a watched directory was closed, regardless of how  it
              was  opened.   Note  that  this  is actually implemented simply by listening for both
              close_write and close_nowrite, hence all close events received will be output as  one
              of these, not CLOSE.

       open   A watched file or a file within a watched directory was opened.

       moved_to
              A  file  or  directory was moved into a watched directory.  This event occurs even if
              the file is simply moved from and to the same directory.

       moved_from
              A file or directory was moved from a watched directory.  This event  occurs  even  if
              the file is simply moved from and to the same directory.

       move   A  file  or  directory  was  moved from or to a watched directory.  Note that this is
              actually implemented simply by listening for both moved_to and moved_from, hence  all
              close events received will be output as one or both of these, not MOVE.

       move_self
              A  watched file or directory was moved. After this event, the file or directory is no
              longer being watched.

       create A file or directory was created within a watched directory.

       delete A file or directory within a watched directory was deleted.

       delete_self
              A watched file or directory was deleted.  After this event the file or  directory  is
              no longer being watched.  Note that this event can occur even if it is not explicitly
              being listened for.

       unmount
              The filesystem on which a watched file or directory  resides  was  unmounted.   After
              this  event  the  file or directory is no longer being watched.  Note that this event
              can occur even if it is not explicitly being listened to.

EXAMPLE
       Watching the `~/.beagle' directory for 60 seconds:

       % inotifywatch -v -e access -e modify -t 60 -r ~/.beagle
       Establishing watches...
       Setting up watch(es) on /home/rohan/.beagle
       OK, /home/rohan/.beagle is now being watched.
       Total of 302 watches.
       Finished establishing watches, now collecting statistics.
       Will listen for events for 60 seconds.
       total  access  modify  filename
       1436   1074    362     /home/rohan/.beagle/Indexes/FileSystemIndex/PrimaryIndex/
       1323   1053    270     /home/rohan/.beagle/Indexes/FileSystemIndex/SecondaryIndex/
       303    116     187     /home/rohan/.beagle/Indexes/KMailIndex/PrimaryIndex/
       261    74      187     /home/rohan/.beagle/TextCache/
       206    0       206     /home/rohan/.beagle/Log/
       42     0       42      /home/rohan/.beagle/Indexes/FileSystemIndex/Locks/
       18     6       12      /home/rohan/.beagle/Indexes/FileSystemIndex/
       12     0       12      /home/rohan/.beagle/Indexes/KMailIndex/Locks/
       3      0       3       /home/rohan/.beagle/TextCache/54/
       3      0       3       /home/rohan/.beagle/TextCache/bc/
       3      0       3       /home/rohan/.beagle/TextCache/20/
       3      0       3       /home/rohan/.beagle/TextCache/62/
       2      2       0       /home/rohan/.beagle/Indexes/KMailIndex/SecondaryIndex/

BUGS
       There are race conditions in the recursive directory watching code which can cause events to
       be missed if they occur in a directory immediately after that directory is created.  This is
       probably not fixable.

       It is assumed the inotify event queue will never overflow.

AUTHORS
       inotifywatch was started by Rohan McGovern, and is currently maintained by Eric  Curtin  and
       Radu Voicilas. https://www.openhub.net/p/inotify-tools/contributors/summary gives you a more
       complete list of contributors.

       inotifywatch  is  part  of  inotify-tools.   The  inotify-tools  website  is   located   at:
       https://github.com/inotify-tools/inotify-tools/wiki

SEE ALSO
       inotifywait(1), inotify(7)

inotifywatch 3.20.2.2                        2020-02-01                             inotifywatch(1)
